TACSAT-4 Early Flight Operations Including Lessons From Integration, Test, and Launch Processing

TacSat-4 is an experimental Ultra High Frequency (UHF) communications satellite that launched on a Minotaur IV+ from Kodiak, Alaska on September 27, 2011. The spacecraft and ground capabilities are briefly described for context. The integration, testing, launch processing, early flight operations, a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Duffey, Tim, Hurley, Mike, Raynor, Bill, Specht, Trevor, Weldy, Ken, Bradley, Eric, Amend, Chris, Rossland, Eric, Barnds, Jim, Akins, Keith
Other Authors: NAVAL RESEARCH LAB WASHINGTON DC
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Unmanned Spacecraft
*COMMUNICATION SATELLITES
FLIGHT
INTEGRATION
LAUNCHING
TEST AND EVALUATION
TACSAT-4
Kodiak
Alaska
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA569654
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA569654
Description
Summary:TacSat-4 is an experimental Ultra High Frequency (UHF) communications satellite that launched on a Minotaur IV+ from Kodiak, Alaska on September 27, 2011. The spacecraft and ground capabilities are briefly described for context. The integration, testing, launch processing, early flight operations, and initial end user results are then discussed. Unique approaches and lessons learned are highlighted. For example, the launch powered off approach used to test new Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) bus standards worked particularly well, and had several benefits during launch processing. The ORS Office is leading the Joint Military Utility Assessment of the TacSat-4 mission. Presented at the 26 Annual AIAA/USU Small Satellite Conference, Utah State University Logan, Utah, August 13-16, 2012. The original document contains color images.

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